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The sights are used by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers. The maker of the sights, Trijicon, has a $660 million multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 sights to the Marine Corps, and additional contracts to provide sights to the U.S. Army.

U.S. military rules specifically prohibit the proselytizing of any religion in Iraq or Afghanistan and were drawn up in order to prevent criticism that the U.S. was embarked on a religious “Crusade” in its war against al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents.

One of the citations on the gun sights, 2COR4:6, is an apparent reference to Second Corinthians 4:6 of the New Testament, which reads: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Other references include citations from the books of Revelation, Matthew and John dealing with Jesus as “the light of the world.” John 8:12, referred to on the gun sights as JN8:12, reads, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Trijicon confirmed to ABCNews.com that it adds the biblical codes to the sights sold to the U.S. military. Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing for Trijicon, which is based in Wixom, Michigan, said the inscriptions “have always been there” and said there was nothing wrong or illegal with adding them. Munson said the issue was being raised by a group that is “not Christian.” The company has said the practice began under its founder, Glyn Bindon, a devout Christian from South Africa who was killed in a 2003 plane crash.

The company’s vision is described on its Web site: “Guided by our values, we endeavor to have our products used wherever precision aiming solutions are required to protect individual freedom.”

“We believe that America is great when its people are good,” says the Web site. “This goodness has been based on Biblical standards throughout our history, and we will strive to follow those morals.”

Spokespeople for the U.S. Army and the Marine Corps both said their services were unaware of the biblical markings. They said officials were discussing what steps, if any, to take in the wake of the ABCNews.com report. It is not known how many Trijicon sights are currently in use by the U.S. military.

The biblical references appear in the same type font and size as the model numbers on the company’s Advanced Combat Optical Guides, called the ACOG.

A photo on a Department of Defense Web site shows Iraqi soldiers being trained by U.S. troops with a rifle equipped with the bible-coded sights.

“It’s wrong, it violates the Constitution, it violates a number of federal laws,” said Michael “Mikey” Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group that seeks to preserve the separation of church and state in the military.

‘Firearms of Jesus Christ’

“It allows the Mujahedeen, the Taliban, al Qaeda and the insurrectionists and jihadists to claim they’re being shot by Jesus rifles,” he said.

Weinstein, an attorney and former Air Force officer, said many members of his group who currently serve in the military have complained about the markings on the sights. He also claims they’ve told him that commanders have referred to weapons with the sights as “spiritually transformed firearm[s] of Jesus Christ.”

He said coded biblical inscriptions play into the hands of “those who are calling this a Crusade.”

According to a government contracting watchdog group, fedspending.org, Trijicon had more than $100 million in government contracts in fiscal year 2008. The Michigan company won a $33 million Pentagon contract in July, 2009 for a new machine gun optic, according to Defense Industry Daily. The company’s earnings from the U.S. military jumped significantly after 2005, when it won a $660 million long-term contract to supply the Marine Corps with sights.

Asked on CBS’ ”Face the Nation” whether it was true that he often called Clinton, Bush replied: ”I don’t know about often, but I did. I called him. He didn’t call me because he knows how busy a president is. I called him and we chatted on occasion.”

Neither Republican nor Democrat Clinton said just what they discussed.

”I was always pleased when he called me,” Clinton said as he sat beside Bush for the interview. ”I make it a practice never to bother the president. I don’t call President Obama either. … They got plenty to do.”

Bush’s eight years in office followed Clinton’s two terms. While poles apart politically, the ex-presidents said they consider themselves to be friends.

”We have developed a very honest, good friendship,” Clinton said. ”And we’ve made our disagreements respectful and we’ve had a good time doing it.”

Dirk von Poschinger-Camphausen, 36, was killed by 10 to 13 gunshots, detective Markus Kraus said at a press conference in the Bavarian capital today. Police arrested three men, who are being investigated for robbery and murder. One of the suspects is a German aged 40, and a 54 year-old Macedonian and Croatian citizen is also in custody. A third person has since been released.

The body of Poschinger-Camphausen, a German native, was discovered in a delivery van in the western suburb of Laim early on Jan. 16. His car was parked nearby. Police said he had been trying to sell his Audi on the Internet. The Munich-based newspaper Abendzeitung said he’d offered the car for 54,000 euros ($77,000) as part of preparations for a move to the U.S.

Poschinger-Camphausen joined the Munich office of Stockholm-based EQT last year after four years at Morgan Stanley in Frankfurt, where he specialized in infrastructure and energy mergers and acquisitions, according to EQT’s Web site.

He was last seen alive on Jan. 14 when he left his apartment in the central Munich district of Bogenhausen at about 9:30 a.m., police spokesman Markus Dengler said yesterday. His wife reported him missing that afternoon. Police are working on the assumption that Pochinger-Camphausen took his suspected killers for a test drive in the car. No weapon has yet been found.

The decree is ostensibly an enactment of a European Union (EU) directive on product placement and is due to go into effect at the end of January after being subjected to a nonbinding appraisal by parliament.

On Thursday opposition lawmakers held a press conference in parliament to denounce the new rules — which require government authorization for the uploading of videos, give individuals who claim to have been defamed a right of reply and prevent the replay of copyright material — as a threat to freedom of expression.

“The decree subjects the transmission of images on the Web to rules typical of television and requires prior ministerial authorization, with an incredible limitation on the way the Internet currently functions,” opposition Democratic Party lawmaker Paolo Gentiloni told the press conference.

Article 4 of the decree specifies that the dissemination over the Internet “of moving pictures, whether or not accompanied by sound,” requires ministerial authorization. Critics say it will therefore apply to the Web sites of newspapers, to IPTV and to mobile TV, obliging them to take on the same status as television broadcasters.

In their quest to identify creditworthy customers, some are tapping into the information you and your friends reveal in the virtual stratosphere. Before calling the privacy police, though, understand how it’s really being used.

According to Nielsen Online, 67 percent of the global online population uses Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin or a similar social media network to stay in touch with friends, grow their business or just have fun. If you’re among them and your settings are turned to “public,” who you’re talking to and what you’re discussing is available to those wanting to sell their wares — and that includes banks and other credit issuers.

…

Another reason credit issuers are looking to this data is to reduce lending risk. Social graphs allow credit issuers to know if you’re connected to a community of great credit customers. Creditors can see if people in your network have accounts with them, and are free to look at how they are handling those accounts.

To those who were concerned,

The warning from the Federal Office for Information Security comes after Microsoft admitted IE was the weak link in recent attacks on Google’s systems.

Microsoft rejected the warning, saying that the risk to users was low and that the browsers increased security setting would prevent any serious risk.

However, German authorities say that even this would not make IE fully safe.

Thomas Baumgaertner, a spokesman for Microsoft in Germany, said that while they were aware of the warning, they did not agree with it, saying that the attacks on Google were by “highly motivated people with a very specific agenda”.

“These were not attacks against general users or consumers,” said Mr Baumgaertner.

“There is no threat to the general user, consequently we do not support this warning,” he added.

Microsoft says the security hole can be shut by setting the browser’s security zone to “high”, although this limits functionality and blocks many websites.

However, Graham Cluley of anti-virus firm Sophos, told BBC News that not only did the warning apply to 6, 7 and 8 of the browser, but the instructions on how to exploit the flaw had been posted on the internet.

Carson County Sheriff Tam Terry told Pronews 7 that someone called just after 7:30am Friday morning to report seeing two individuals with guns close to the plant.

Pantex activated its Emergency Response Organization to respond to the situation around 8:00am.

The Carson County Sheriff’s Department responded and found the men about 2 miles south of the plant.

The men told officers they had permission from the landowner to hunt on the property.

Terry said they confirmed the men were also employees of Pantex.

They wouldn’t release anymore information except that they have a number of sheriff’s officers at the nuclear facility, and they are investigating.

NewsChannel 10 will keep you updated as information becomes available.

PANTEX NEWS RELEASE

Contact: (806) 345-6616 Release # 1 January 15, 2010 TIME 0900AM

Pantex Activates Emergency Response Organization

The weakness in consumer demand highlighted the formidable hurdles facing the economy as it struggles to recover from the deepest recession in seven decades.

The Commerce Department said Thursday that retail sales declined 0.3 percent in December compared with November, much weaker than the 0.5 percent rise that economists had been expecting. Excluding autos, sales dropped by 0.2 percent, also weaker than the 0.3 percent rise analyst had forecast.